New Details about Windows 8 from Bill Laing, Head of Microsoft Server and Cloud Division

The head of Microsoft's Server and Cloud Division Bill Laing has outlined the plan for the upcoming Windows Server 8 platform.

In an interview with PC Mag, Laing said that a lot of elements in Windows Sever 8 had been inspired by the Azure cloud computing platform.

Laing talked about the platform’s development process, that developers have already tested Windows Server 8 and mentioned that some of the partners in the Technology Adoption Program also participated in the testing.

He also said that the platform will feature a new tool for Sever Manager and additional features not available in the previous version.

Laing said that while most customers bought new hardware when they upgraded platforms, the company is focusing on allowing them to run the platform on older machines as well.

“We want people to be able to manage many machines from one. Our goal was to make it a natural evolution for people. I think that it's probably the broadest [of changes]. We've added more features than our several last releases. It's a big release of Windows Server. And it's in every area—file system storage, clustering, virtualisation, remote access…,” Laing said.